With all the irrational, bad-faith, and unconstitutional actions by the Obama administration, we often thought we might be living in an Alice in Wonderland world--but figuratively speaking only.
Until now.
Apparently, the administration adopted its literal meaning, the New York Post reports:
It was the tea party the Obamas just couldn’t resist.
A White
House “Alice in Wonderland” costume ball — put on by Johnny Depp and
Hollywood director Tim Burton — proved to be a Mad-as-a-Hatter idea that
was never made public for fear of a political backlash during hard
economic times, according to a new tell-all...
The book reveals how any official announcement of the glittering affair —
coming at a time when Tea Party activists and voters furious over the
lagging economy, 10-percent unemployment rate, bank bailouts and Obama’s
health-care plan were staging protests — quickly vanished down the
rabbit hole.
Christmas often comes a bit later for divorce lawyers. It is often said that attorneys who handle divorces get to cash a lot of checks in January from new clients. Once spouses with serious relationship troubles make it past the holidays, "it's a land rush," to quote Seinfield's Kramer (in another context).
But the January reverse nuptials may be on the way out. According to London's Daily Mail, there is something else in play beyond a couple on the verge of a breakup possibly feeling obligated to hold on on through the holiday season for the sake of the family. Apparently people are liking each other a little too much on Facebook.
Facebook is becoming a major factor in marriage breakdowns and is increasingly being used as a source of evidence in divorce cases, according to lawyers.
The social networking site was cited as a reason for a third of divorces last year in which unreasonable behaviour was a factor, according to law firm Divorce-Online.
The firm said it had seen a 50 per cent jump in the number of behaviour-based divorce petitions that contained the word ‘Facebook’ in the past two years.
As quoted in the article, the managing director of Divorce-Online added that "'People contact ex-partners and the messages start as innocent, but lead to trouble." He also warned about Facebook postings: "People need to be careful what they put on Facebook as the courts are now seeing a lot more evidence being introduced from people’s walls and posts in disputes over finances and children."
Whether you are a celebrity or an just a ordinary person, being victimized by a stalker must be a horrible, disgusting experience. The law should come down on stalkers like a ton of bricks.
ESPN's Erin Andrews recently filed a civil lawsuit for invasion of privacy, negligence, and emotional distress against a Marriott hotel in Nashville and the peeping tom who filmed her through a hotel room peephole seeking a total of $10 million in damages. The perpetrator himself is already serving 2-1/2 years in federal prison for his misdeeds.
According to the lawsuit, Andrews said the
hotel was guilty of negligence for, among other things, allowing Barrett
to know that Andrews was staying in the hotel and then allowing him to
book a room next to her own. Andrews was in Nashville to cover a
Vanderbilt University football game.
She
also said the hotel was negligent for failing to discover Barrett
altered the peephole of the plaintiff's hotel room door, allowing the
videos to be taken.
The suit said
the videotaping and posting of the nude images continues to cause
Andrews "great emotional distress and embarrassment."
Presumably hotels around the country have retrofitted the peepholes to prevent this kind of sick activity from happening again to anyone.
The hotel room video went viral on the Internet as everyone probably remembers. In May 2010, Elisabeth Hasselback of The View got into a lot of trouble for saying that the convicted stalker could have avoided jail and seen almost as much of Andrews just by watching her on Dancing with the Stars. Hasselback apologized on air the next day.
Here are Hasselback's original remarks followed by what appears to be a heartfelt apology:
Hasselback, who parlayed a near-win on the second season of Survivor into a talk show career, is the token conservative on The View, which puts her under a lot of unfair pressure even on a good day. Despite the resources that she can likely command for prep work, however, Hasselback is sadly seldom able to effectively refute the usual liberal claptrap (based on the footage we've seen on the Internet) from all the other regulars on that show on a daily basis when the subject under discussion is politics.
In this particular instance, she stumbled into the minefield of political correctness that goes well beyond the usual partisan ideological conflicts (and during which one of the other panelists indicates that it's okay to be half naked if you're being paid).
For some reason, Eric Bolling of FNC'sThe Five described Hasselbeck as "so smart" in a November broadcast, which makes us glad Bolling is not managing our stock portfolio.
Irrespective of her lackluster debating skills, were Hasselback's original comments out of line? Or was she saying what others might have been thinking at the time?
In case you missed any of these "brilliant" contributions the first time around, here are our most viewed postings of roughly the past year (actually more than a year taking into consideration that this blog was inactive for a period of time in 2011). Happy new year.
This is being touted on several websites as the best People's Court entrance ever.
Actually, there is a better one: A defendant did a 360-degree spin as he came through the door as if he is auditioning for one of those talent search shows. When she took the bench, Judge Milian raked him over the coals for disrespecting the court. If anyone has this video, please send it our way.
This plaintiff made honorable mention:
Update: The Real Best People's Court Entrance Ever
A reader was kind enough to provide the link to the video that we discussed above. Here it is:
